Legal and migrant advocacy groups fighting to block New York from helping the Trump administration enforce US immigration laws have been awarded more than $600 million in taxpayer dollars from the city and state governments, a Post review of contracts revealed.
The Bronx Defenders alone has received more than $500 million in city contracts since fiscal year 2018 to provide a host of legal services to poor criminal and civil defendants, including migrants, according to a review of contracts from 2009 to the present.
And the legal aid group raked in another $32 million from the state over the years, records kept by the state comptroller’s office show.
Other groups were also funneled big bucks as they worked to undermine federal immigration policy, including Make the Road NY — which received $56 million to provide legal, health and other services mostly to immigrants, state and city contract records.
The group helped organize a rally at the state Capitol last month urging passage of a sanctuary bill as rally goers chanted, “No hate, no fear. Immigrants are welcome here.”
The New York Immigration Coalition received $46 million.
“New York City should not be in the business of carrying out Donald Trump’s mass disappearance agenda, which is in fact illegal under our local laws,” said Murad Awadeh, executive director of the NYICC, on his X handle @HeyItsMurad.
Awadeh also reposted an interview he did with New York Public News Network on May 30.
“Sanctuary policies are public safety measures,” he said. “They encourage people to participate within our society so that they’re able and comfortable enough to report things that are happening and without them, a lot of people won’t do that, because they are fearful, and rightfully fearful, especially in the world that we’re living in today, that they may end up entrapped in this ICE enforcement that’s happening.”
Additionally, New Yorker Lawyers for the Public Interest received $19 million, including about $5 million from 2022 to present, city and state records show.
The Bronx Defenders have been part of a wider push for a statewide sanctuary bill — the New York for All Act — that would bar state and local law enforcement from cooperating with US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents.
That would include assisting in providing information, turning over or deporting illegal immigrants.
Another bill with a push from activists called the Dignity not Detention Act would ban local jails from renting space to ICE to increase their detention capacity for suspected illegal migrants.
“State leaders are not powerless against the federal administration’s mass deportation agenda,” the Bronx Defenders said in a June 11 statement on X. “We have a couple ideas: pass New York For All and Dignity Not Detention now, before it’s too late.”
The state Senate adjourned for the summer without passing either of the bills.
Passage could become a political liability for Democrats who control the state government and US House of Representatives members who are running for office next year, including Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Meanwhile, New York City is slated to spend $75 million on immigration legal services in its new budget, under a spending agreement approved by Mayor Eric Adams and the City Council. That spending plan includes $41.9 million in free legal assistance for migrants facing deportation
But politicians who back President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration fumed that groups helping break federal immigration law are receiving massive taxpayer funding.
“Non-governmental organizations that help shield criminals from deportation should not receive a single penny,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn).
“While I don’t have much faith in Governor [Kathy] Hochul and New York Democrats to stop funding left wing groups who work against law enforcement and the interests of citizens, we’re taking decisive action on the federal level to end the Biden-Schumer gravy train of years past and put that money towards border security and enforcement to get foreign gangs and criminals out.”
Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella said, “Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to undermine public safety and our immigration laws. They are fighting to protect those who are dangerous criminals.
“It’s a poke in the eye to hard working taxpayers. Is the money well spent?. The answer is no.”
State Conservative Party chairman Gerard Kassar: “There is no excuse for New York authorities not to cooperate with federal authorities. New Yorkers should not be spending hundreds of millions of dollars on groups fighting to keep illegal aliens in the United States.”
The staggering tally comes after an off-duty US Customs and Border Protection agent was shot in the face in New York City during a robbery — with the shooter allegedly an illegal migrant.
President Trump also ripped Democrats for flooding “our Nation with Criminal Invaders.”
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